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Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - Bill of Rights

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Preservation and Proposition

Our mission is to document the pivotal Second Amendment events that occurred in Frontier Mercersburg, and its environs, and to heighten awareness of the importance of these events in the founding of our Nation.

We are dedicated to the preservation of the place where the Second Amendment was "born" and to the proposition that the Second Amendment (the "right to bear arms") is the keystone of our Liberty and the Republic.

Monday, May 12, 2014

By Marty Roney - 5/10/5/2014Montgomery Advertiser
Attendees look over a pistol display at the National Rifle Association's annual convention April 25 in Indianapolis.

Some of the bluest of the blue bloods in the nation's gun industry are looking at moving production from state's that recently have passed stricter gun control laws, and the South is the hotspot.

As Remington Outdoors Co. considered 24 states for a new firearms production plant, support of the Second Amendment was high on its criteria list.

Remington announced in February it would build a $110 million plant in Huntsville. During the next decade, the plant is expected to create 2,000 jobs, company officials say.

We considered numerous factors in our decision-making process, said Teddy Novine, director of public affairs for Freedom Group Inc., the parent company of Remington. These factors included, among others, labor quality, pro-business environment, strong existing infrastructure and pro-Second Amendment policies.

Remington Outdoors, headquartered in Madison, N.C., has facilities in 19 states. Its largest plant is in Ilion, N.Y., where the company has had a presence since 1816. Remington has seen tremendous growth in the past five years, going from 2,400 employees in 2008 to 4,200 in 2013.

New York's passage of the Safe Firearms and Ammunition Enforcement (SAFE) Act in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shootings is the major reason those Remington jobs didn't settle in Ilion and went to Alabama, a union official told syracuse.com.

The SAFE Act has been a terrible thing from the beginning, said Fran Madore, president of United Mine Workers Local 717, which represents 1,180 of the 1,300 Remington employees in Ilion, N.Y. You'd think New York would be doing everything to keep us. Instead, it passes a law that cripples us.

Remington has no plans to move production from the Ilion plant, Novine said.

The Remington decision is not unique. Increasingly, gun makers with plants or headquarters in states that have passed more stringent gun control laws are looking to gun friendly states when it comes time to expand.

Beretta USA, headquartered in Accokeek, Md., announced in January that it will build a $45 million production plant in Gallatin, Tenn. The plant, which is the first U.S. Beretta production plant outside of Maryland, will employ 300 people.

Beretta USA manufactures the M-9, the standard .9 mm sidearm for the U.S. military, among other guns.

Finding a state that supported the Second Amendment did play a sizable role in our search, said Ryan Muety, spokesman for Beretta USA. There were several factors, one of which was a strong level of support for constitutional rights.

Beretta USA continues to have a significant impact in Maryland, said Nina Smith, spokesman for Gov. Martin O'Malley.

We appreciate Beretta's continued presence here in Maryland and their commitment to Prince George's County and our state, she said. Private sector business is driving economic growth in Maryland. We have created over 36,000 jobs since December 2012. We'll continue to work with members of our business community to create jobs and expand opportunity for more Marylanders.

Other firearms companies on the move include:

Ruger, headquartered in Southport, Conn., announced in July that it will build a production plant in Mayodan, N.C. The move marks the company's first major expansion in 25 years.

Kahr Arms, headquartered in Pearl River, N.Y., has purchased 620 acres in Blooming Grove Township, Penn. It plans on moving its corporate headquarters and research and development arm to Pennsylvania in the first phase of expansion. The second phase will include building a production plant at the site.

PTR Industries, which makes semi-automatic rifles, announced last June that it will relocate all operations from Bristol, Conn., to Aynor, S.C. The move was completed in January, the company's website says. The facility plans on producing 120 jobs by 2017.

Firearms economic impact

The firearms industry was responsible for about $38 billionin total economic activity in the United States in 2013, up97 percent from 2008.

Economic impact of the firearms industry in 2013 in states that have passed more strict gun control laws:

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It All Started Here . . .

Frontier Mercersburg in 1765 was the "birthplace" of the right we now refer to as "the Second Amendment", or, "the right to bear arms". It was here that individuals for the first time, some would say divinely, embraced the link between "Life and Liberty". . . and struck the first blow for Freedom.

Historically the right to bear arms goes back even before our founding as a nation to the Glorious Revolution of 1689 when William III agreed to the English Bill of Rights. If one can look at revolution like a volcanic eruption in nature, you understand that often from the destruction come the seeds of new human values and beliefs. In this case the independence of the human spirit, the right to know God for oneself, and to trust your conscience was hard won in this revolution of the human soul.

One crucible begets the necessity for another and on the frontier in America the right to defend ones religious beliefs was becoming the right to participate in the decisions of government that impact my "self". Freedom of the soul was becoming freedom of the heart and mind. Smith's Rebellion began as an act they justified under the rubric of defending oneself because government had failed in its obligation to protect Life, Liberty and Property. This was the first assertion of this principle aimed directly at British Military Authority as well as the incompetent government of John Penn - anywhere in the colonies.

In the end, Smith's Rebellion was the first armed resistance against British Military Rule leading up to the American Revolution. It was the first American triumph over the best military force in the world. It was the first time upon defending oneself that Americans had proclaimed we can rule ourselves.

It would be ten years before the battles at Lexington and Concord.

...Let Them Take Arms

The "Right to Bear Arms" . . .or 2nd Amendment is one of the most discussed and contentious of all the amendments of the Bill of Rights. It is, in fact, the only amendment that contains not only the seeds but the actual instruments of the revolution itself. Further, it gives real affirmation to Thomas Jefferson's quote . . .

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

It is for this reason, if no other, that the Government and its functionaries vociferously assail and obfuscate the text of this simple assertion. More, it is for this reason, and in the face of the perennial onslaught that its defense and affirmation is essential to the survival of the republic.

Frontier Mercersburg & The Justice William Smith House

The frontier town of Mercersburg, PA. in the 1760's, although typical of many settlements along the Appalachian Mountains played a pivotal role in the creation of what was to become the "Bill of Rights".

Frontiersmen like James Smith and the Black Boys, many of whom were inhabitants of the Mercersburg environs, were early participants in a series of conflicts with the British government that established principles the eventually lead to the inclusion of the "right to bear arms" in the Bill of Rights.

Much of the focus, centers on the domicile (and likely place of business) of Justice William Smith.